Hat on Top, Coat Below

Fun with Flickr

April 17, 2009

The magic donkey smiled upon me on Easter Sunday and put one of my pictures on Explore, this one here with the Peeps. Why the donkey gave the nod to this particular photo, I do not know. I do not question the donkey; I just enjoy those rare occasions when I get his or her attention. I’ve certainly had more visitors to my photostream than usual this week, and that’s been fun. For the past few days, the donkey’s choice has been vying with this pedicure picture for most views per day. I joked with Mr. Karen that I might have to try posting a picture of me crushing Peeps under my toes to see if the combination would draw even more traffic.

The uptick I’ve seen this week has meant I’ve spent more time on Flickr than usual (at the expense of proofreading and LOLCats and such), because my own rules for Flickr etiquette require me to try and respond to people who leave comments and mark my photos as favorites. If someone asks a question, I’ll comment on my own photo to answer, but other than that I head over to the other person’s photos to see what catches my eye. I figure since they took the time to do a bit more than just look at my stuff, it’s only polite that I take some time to check out theirs, and there’s usually something interesting to inspire a comment or a favorite from me. I’m not compulsive about it, because Flickr’s something I do for fun, but I feel good when I do follow my own rules. It’s the same principle that moves me to comment on another photo in the group when I drop one of mine into the pool. However, I don’t contribute to any groups where comments are required by rule, since then it feels forced, and forced isn’t fun for me. If I routinely got as many comments and favorites as I’ve gotten on the Peeps, I might have to make up some new rules, but I don’t see that happening, since I am mostly a taker of snapshots rather than a true photographer.